In this replay episode of Build Momentum, we are joined by Jessica Morrison, the Executive Director of Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative, one of the partners in the newly established Career Launch Southwest initiative, which serves as a vital link between employers and the workforce of the future. She was previously the Director of Career and College Counseling at Animas High School in Durango for six years. In June 2021, the school won the Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP) Award from the Colorado Department of Education for its Sophomore Inspire Week program.
This episode concludes our series focusing on rural collaboratives that are developing opportunities for students in specialized career pathways.
This is the final episode in a four-part series focusing on rural collaboratives that are developing opportunities for students in specialized career pathways.
Some Questions I Ask:
- Tell us more about Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative. (01:21)
- How do you create partnerships? (04:39)
- What are the challenges and successes in working with higher education partner institutions? (07:50)
- What is your funding model and how do you make it work for school districts? (11:51)
- What are the credentials you are currently offering to high school students and what are the outcomes of the program? (15:22)
- What advice can you give to leaders about starting the collaboration process? (24:30)
- How are you sharing your success stories? (30:14)
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- All about the Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative (01:34)
- Southwest Colorado Educational Collaborative’s partnerships (04:56)
- Challenges and successes in higher ed partnerships (08:14)
- Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative’s funding model (12:07)
- Credentials and outcomes of the program (15:53)
- Advice to leaders interested in collaborating on workforce development(25:17)
- Strategies for sharing success stories and elevating thought leadership in education (30:40)
Quotes:
“I want all of your listeners to understand that these pieces take time—this is not for a school district that is faint of heart. I've worked in K-12 institutions as well as on the federal government side, and I know how important data is. What are the numbers? How many students are earning industry credentials? But laying the groundwork takes years, so it's looking at all of the different components to then determine what are the steps that need to be put in place along the way.”
“As you're building out this dream of consolidating resources in order to do more or bring more to a region, you can also be doing some more low-hanging fruit like priming students to be ready, which pushes your partners to get to the place of shared courses.”
Stay in touch with Jobs for the Future:
Career Launch Southwest Website
Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative Website
Email: info@swcoedcollaborative.org
Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn
Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn
About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Williamson (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Build Momentum, a
Podcast where we explore thoughtleadership and education. I'm
Sarah Williamson, the Founder ofSW PR group.
Chad Bolser (00:14):
And I'm Chad Bolser Chancellor Ivy Tech Community
College in Richmond, Indiana.
This season, we will launch aseries exploring global
workforce development and K 12school districts and the leaders
who are bringing this work tolight.
Sarah Williamson (00:29):
We hear from CTE directors, superintendents
and thought leaders on the topicof workforce development, how it
shifted throughout the lastseveral years, who is employing
strategies that are making animpact and how they're sharing
those stories with the broadereducation community. We explore
how to leverage key partners,your constituents and the media
to authentically impact yourorganization and the leaders who
(00:51):
champion them. We can't wait toget started. So let's dive in.
Today's episode, we continue ourglobal workforce series with
Jessica Morrison, the executivedirector of Southwest Colorado
Education Collaborative. We'reexcited to spend some time with
you today, Jessica, to exploresome of the great work you're
doing in the traditional careerand technical education space.
(01:12):
Welcome to the podcast.
Jessica Morrison (01:13):
Yeah, thank you, Sarah, and Chad for having
me on. I'm so excited to talkabout all the good work that's
happening in this SouthwestColorado.
Chad Bolser (01:21):
Yeah. So with that in mind, tell us about the
Southwest Colorado EducationalCollaborative, what schools are
involved, what kind ofopportunities you provide your
students just give us anoverview of the operation.
Jessica Morrison (01:34):
Yeah, sure.
And I can even start in on alittle bit of the history. So
the collaborative started, wecall ourself the collaborative
for short. The collaborativestarted about three and a half
years ago under a rice grantthat was awarded to leaders in
our region to try on this idea$3.6 million largest rice grant
in the state of Colorado out ofGovernor Polis office. And
(01:58):
pretty much what these leaderssitting at the table focused on
was, hey, our students in ourrural communities deserve to
have the same access to careerand college resources as our
students in our metro areas inthe state of Colorado and across
the nation. And so when theystarted looking at what those
(02:19):
resources were that studentsdeserve to have access to, and
how they would be able toprovide those resources
independently within their ruralcommunities, they really
realized that they weren't goingto be able to do it alone. And
so they came up with this visionabout sharing resources, so
breaking themselves out of theirsilos, and sharing across
(02:42):
districts and higher ed partnersand industry to build the same
access for students, which is,you know, innovative in itself.
Right. So we started off withfive school districts Bayfield,
Silverton Archer ledit, Durangoin Ignacio. And our two higher
ed partners for it was collegeand public community college.
(03:06):
And we started in on twopathways, building trades, and
environmental based off ofeconomic data for our region and
student-student voice studentchoice. And then what was
already happening within ourdistricts and our higher ed
partners as far as programming.
(03:27):
So what resources did we alreadyhave available. And so taking
that idea and accelerating itvery quickly to where we are
now, the collaborative is nowpartnered with nine school
districts across the entireregion. We still have our higher
ed partner, Fort Lewis Collegeand public community college.
We've expanded into five careerand college pathways. So we
(03:51):
still have our original twobuilding trades and
environmental. We have alsoencompass Health Sciences,
Education, and hospitality,tourism. And then we facilitate
across all three of the sectors.
So the third sector is industry.
And so now we hold a place inthe center of facilitating
(04:11):
conversations between industry K12 and higher ed. So that is our
large overall model.
Sarah Williamson (04:17):
That is fantastic. Shout out to Karen
Cheser from Durango. Love thatwoman. She Yes, I've met her a
few different times. Do you knowher? Jen? She's amazing.
Jessica Morrison (04:27):
Yeah. Yeah.
She is amazing. It looks likeit's on mute there.
Chad Bolser (04:32):
Yeah. We were on a panel together.
Jessica Morrison (04:34):
Oh, fantastic.
Sarah Williamson (04:35):
She's out.
Jessica Morrison (04:36):
So Dr. Cheser is actually our board chair.
Sarah Williamson (04:39):
Shout out to Dr. Karen Cheser. There we go.
Yeah. Okay. All right. So wehave become familiar with the
work of the Southwest ColoradoEducation Collaborative through
some of our friends at Empowerschools. Fair how those schools
came together, how you createdall these partnerships?
Jessica Morrison (04:56):
Yeah, sure.
Absolutely. So and I can alsotalk about a little bit about
the work that we do as well. Sowhat does that mean for a career
and college pathway and thepartnerships had. so Empower
schools, we work with manytechnical support partners, one
of them from the beginning hasbeen Empower schools, and they
are integral to this work. Theyone they were running our hiring
(05:19):
process for the executivedirector. That's how I first
engaged with them. But thenevery step of the way, when I
stepped into an organizationthat didn't even have a 501 C3
registration yet to how do youstructure a board that is a
cooperative? How do we placeourselves as paid collaborative
(05:40):
members as facilitators of avision, because that's the
strength of the collaborative,is that the partners of the
collaborative or thecollaborative, I am not the
collaborative, I am paid by ourpartners to facilitate their
vision and help support themalong the way with curating what
that vision looks like, right?
(06:04):
And Empower schools has beenintegral in that process with us
they have helped support mespecifically within my role with
how do you corral nine schooldistricts with nine different
priorities and potentially likeneeds that are all different
across our region to come intoor to come to a shared vision of
(06:25):
how they are going to moveforward? How do we execute MO
use where there are sharedequipment that students and
teachers are using acrossdistricts? What does that look
like? Well, we're movingequipment across mountain
passes. And so Empower schoolshas been a huge asset to our
region, and to our organizationto help keep us on that larger
(06:49):
vision as we are working out thedetails. So we're really, really
fortunate to have them at thetable, and their commitment. I
think the other thing thatEmpower schools does really well
is is that they give usresources, they provide us
feedback, but they have alwaysfocused on the fact that it
(07:10):
looks different in every ruralcommunity. And so they focus in
on providing behind the scenesresources to collaboratives. But
then understand that weunderstand our communities best.
And so then therefore, we'regoing to work in partnership
with them to explain what weactually need, because it looks
(07:31):
different. It looks differentacross different communities, as
well as if you're in a metroarea versus a rural area. So
I've always been impressed withEmpower schools, and their
ability to also understand thatthe power really comes in having
our rural leaders lead the way.
Chad Bolser (07:50):
So Jessica, I'm a part of the community college
system here in the state ofIndiana. And so I'm always
interested, you mentioned yourhigher education partners before
and some of the really coolprogramming that you're doing.
What successes have you seen?
And what challenges do you haveworking in that space with the
higher education institutions?
Jessica Morrison (08:14):
Yeah, absolutely. This is so
brilliant, because I was workingon shared courses this morning
was at Fort Lewis College. So Ithink that there is always
there's always going to bechallenges to and roadblocks to
anything that has not beenmapped out. Right, and has been
(08:34):
done and has proven success. Andthat is very much true in the
higher education. I used to workin higher education. I have a
background in that. And so Ithink what we have really gotten
right is that we have higher edpartners at the table that
understand that some of thiswork, needs to have an
(08:57):
individual that's willing andcommitted to jump, identify
challenges, and work on asolution focused way to create a
roadmap that doesn't exist. Andthat's actually the whole piece
of the Southwest ColoradoEducation Collaborative. We are
the first ones in Colorado,there is eight additional world
collaboratives since us, but weare the ones that are the
(09:20):
furthest along and providingthis building and implementation
of a roadmap. And there's been alot of what people would call
failures along the way. And sothat can be really tricky for
partners, especially highereducation. But we have been
really fortunate that both FortLewis College and public
community college understandthat we need to be working
(09:42):
collectively together to figureout what those solutions are to
those barriers. Some of thebarriers that I would say that
we currently face is forexample, we've run an education
pathway and it's really excitingthe teacher Ed pathway student
that moves through our teacher,Ed pathway could potentially
leave with 12 collegiate creditsthat they could use towards
(10:07):
becoming an educator. Right?
Which is exciting, because thatis, you know, a full semester
off of their tuition for fouryears. And so but what that
looks like the devil in thedetails with that is how do you
share a course where you can puta professor in nine different
school districts. And so we haveto identify professors that are
willing to teach in a hybridformat, hybrid synchronous, but
(10:30):
that takes a different skillset. Right. So identifying a
teacher or a professor who iswilling to teach in a hybrid
format, identifying or workingwith admissions to understand
that it's not just filling theclass, because we know that
seats equate the dollars, buthow do we backfill in timelines
(10:52):
to ensure that there isrepresentation from multiple
school districts so that it'sshared and accessible to all and
not just maybe the schooldistrict that has the most
resources. So that hasdefinitely been a challenge in
itself, and then determining howmany students need to be in that
(11:13):
class in order for that seat,that class to run, because we
are building out shared CourseGuides, and providing all of
this counseling and informationout around the community. And
then if only five students signup for that course, that's a
loss of revenue for thatcollegiate institution. And
(11:34):
usually, that collegiateinstitution then want to just
run the course. But then thatcan stop the pathway. So those
are definitely some significantchallenges and barriers that we
have to work through with ourtwo year and our four year. But
being committed to that, whichhas been fantastic. Right?
Sarah Williamson (11:51):
Yeah, that's great. And then kind of on that
note of challenges, we know thatfunding, of course, can be an
issue when you're sharingstudents. We're curious to know
how, especially in the K 12education space, what's your
funding model? And how do youmake it work for each of those
school districts?
Jessica Morrison (12:07):
Yeah, so that's a great debt. Yes.
Whenever you talk about money,right, like at the dinner table,
it's an issue and you're talkingabout and you're not family?
Sarah Williamson (12:17):
Oh, yeah.
Right.
Jessica Morrison (12:20):
So our funding model, there's a couple of
different components to it. Sooverall, the collective
collaborative, the partners thatare sitting at our table and
have a signed MOU, provide adistrict contribution. And that
is that district contribution isdetermined by an annual budget
that I create, and I say, Okay,this is how much grant funding,
(12:44):
we have to cover our robustprogramming that I'll talk
about. So and then this is howmuch I think I'm going to be
able to get but then these arethe things that I am not going
to be able to build to a grant,for example, like insurance for
our board members, if I'mfundraising, my fundraising time
towards my salary, you can'tbuild that to a grand and a
private funders most likely notgoing to give that to you. So we
(13:07):
make up what is that generaloperations budget that we are
not going to be able to fillgrant wise. And then we
calculate that out acrossstudent numbers and school
districts, and then our schooldistricts pay a contribution. So
our smaller school districts,one of our school districts only
(13:27):
has 84 students in the wholedistrict. So Silverton is
obviously paying less than, youknow, Durango high school that
has 3000 students, right? Soit's not during goes not that
many, but it's just it's ahigher number, whatever that is.
So we have our K 12 institutionsthat pay and for general
(13:48):
operations, in addition to that,our higher ed partners provide
in kind. And so what that lookslike is Fort Lewis College
provides office space in kind tous. So that drops the general
operations budget down to lowerthe costs for K 12 institutions.
And so that has been and thenfrom the executive director head
(14:10):
on, I am able to when I'mwriting grants or talking to
private funders say every singlepartner that's at the table has
not only a shared investment andcommitment through an MOU, but
they are putting dollars behindthis shared commitment. And that
has allowed us to bring in nowat this point in three years, $7
(14:31):
million into our region,basically, like through
specifically the collaborative,right. And so it's all of these
different pieces that work. Andthen I'm really proud of our K
12 partners, because thesuperintendents all last March
got together in a room and theysaid, Okay, if we're doing
shared courses, we need to comeup with a cost model. So they
(14:53):
came up with a cost model witheach other that if there's a
student from Ignacio, that takescorse in Bayfield, then Ignacio
pays a flat rate for thatstudent and then depending on
the class a certain amount forthe amount of consumables that
are needed in that class, like,if it's a culinary class,
there's a high amount ofconsumables, right? So that is
(15:16):
the model and empower schoolswas intrical in helping us
trying to figure out that modelas well.
Chad Bolser (15:22):
That's really, really cool that you're able to
generate that much support. AndI love the in kind sort of way
that that's higher ed isn'tinvested there. So to kind of
continue down that path, whatwhat credentials are you
offering high school studentscurrently? And what outcomes of
(15:45):
the program have happened in thelast couple of years that would
be notable to folks listening intrying to figure out how to get
this going? What are theoutcomes, then?
Jessica Morrison (15:53):
Yeah, well Chad, I can send you over that
annual report that we have justoff the press two, which is
great. So there's a lot ofdifferent components. And I
think the first thing that Iwant to say to all of your
listeners is to understand thatthese pieces take time. And so
this is not for a schooldistrict that is faint of heart.
(16:14):
I've worked in K 12 institutionsas well, also on the federal
government side. And so I knowhow important data is, and like,
what are the numbers, how manystudents are earning industry
credentials, but laying thegroundwork takes years. And so
it's looking at all of thedifferent components to then
(16:36):
determine what are the stepsthat need to be put in place
along the way. So as I say thatwe are two and a half years in
we are in our third year ofserving students. And so I'll
give some highlights and thenI'll talk about what that looks
like. So one of the biggestpieces that we did very quickly
is we started to engage in workbased learning. So we built half
(16:58):
day job shadows that engage havethree to four hands on, or
brains on activities thatstudents get to engage with
industry and to learn abouttheir job. And so we built the
model of the half, half day jobshadow, we then went out and
recruited industry leaders to beable to showcase their work. And
(17:21):
then we go over to the K 12institutions, and we recruit
students to participate in thosejob shadows. So those were easy
wins, right? For a couple ofreasons. One are industry
leaders love to actually talkabout their work and showcase it
in a way where it's not a standin deliver at a traditional
college fair that we've allattended when we were in high
(17:44):
school, and then you havestudents standing across from
you on their cell phones, notlistening to anything that
you're talking about. Instead,we have students that are
learning very specifically howto actualize insurance policies,
right or things to that nature.
So based off from those jobshadows, and garnering that
interest, we also collect surveydata from students after, and
(18:07):
that's really important. So weasked students at the end of it,
were you interested in this typeof career? You are great. Are
you currently taking a class? Inthis type of career? You're
currently taking a buildingtrades class, you're not? Would
you like to in the future? Wouldyou be interested in an
internship in the future, wetake all of that data, and we
(18:27):
bring it to the counselors atthe school districts. So then
instead of blindly puttingstudents into courses, they are
now doing a whole studentadvising on this is what a
student's interest is. They'vedone an experience with
industry. And now they're goingto be able to start entering
(18:47):
into a career and collegepathway. So that was like the
first thing that we got. Right.
And that was done really well.
The second thing that's alsofocused in work based learning
as a quick add in, or initiativewas that we built summer
Institutes. So our longestserving Summer Institute is ECI.
It's the Environmental ClimateInstitute. It's a week long
(19:10):
program residential program atFort Lewis College. It's
actually all in kind from FortLewis College. And we bring
industry leaders fromenvironmental like, Forest
Service is one, Mountain StudiesInstitute is another one, Tree
Coring things to that nature.
(19:31):
And students spend five dayswith industry learning, again,
in an immersive format aboutthose different types of
careers. We then take that dataat the end and let them know
hey, there's this entry level,environmental science course
Concurrent Enrollment that'sfree to you here at Fort Lewis
College if you're interested. Soagain, those work based learning
(19:52):
components are actually thethings that get the entry point
into the courses for for thecredentials, and industry
certifications. Some things thatwe didn't realize that came out
of the summer Institutes wasreally exciting is that we have
a mantra that we are going toserve the student in our
(20:13):
individual communities. That'sfurthest from opportunities,
because when we've tapped intothem, then we know that we're
supporting everyone else. Andone of the things that came up
with the Summer Institutes isthat middle class and upper
class students are actually theones that can afford to go to
summer programs. And so thatdidn't work for us. So we made
(20:37):
the summer Institutes free, andthen we stipend students to
attend those summer Institutesbecause a lot of our low income
students, they have to havesummer jobs to support
themselves and their families.
So we just removed that barrier.
And so from ECI, we found out inour building trades summer or
(20:58):
building trades, creatingcollege pathway, that economic
data for Southwest Colorado, thetop three jobs that have the
most vacancies are HVAC,electrical, and plumbing, with a
2% growth in that industry everyyear for the next 10 years. Not
a single one of our K 12partners have classes in any of
(21:19):
those three industry areas. Andnone of our higher ed partners
here are right across our stateline run programs. So it was a
desert. So we're like, well, wehave to do something. So we
built a behind the drywallsummer institute that focuses
specifically on a trackelectrical and plumbing. We
(21:41):
piloted it for the first yearbrought industry and industry
was so excited about it thatthey were like, we're just gonna
start hiring students directlyout of this program. So the
students would go for five daysthrough the building trades
behind the drywall summerprogram, they will be hired in
by industry, we have studentsthat are on a pre apprenticeship
(22:02):
path right now. Because theywent to the Summer Institute,
the industry leader met withthem, gave them a summer job at
the end of it said, hey, youknow, what do you want to do an
apprenticeship, I will pay youto be to go through this
program, I'll pay all of yourfees, and then I'm going to pay
you to work. So now we have likea senior who's doing a half day
(22:24):
at DHS, and he's making $38,000as a plumber and getting his
certification along the way. Butthen we'll also happen with that
is that now we have a schooldistrict that's interested in
piloting an HVAC course in theirhigh school. And then our two
year partner was like, well,actually, maybe we should run an
(22:45):
electrical journeymancertificate. And so this is
where when I'm talking aboutthese work based learning
components, it's like that's thestart. That's like the low
hanging fruit, but then itpushes into what you're talking
about with credentials incertifications. So all to say,
Chad, that was like a very longexample. And so specifically, to
(23:10):
answer your question, I'm like,what is the data, the data is,
is that the hardest part isshared courses. That is the
hardest part. And when westarted in our first year, I had
this grand vision that we weregoing to have hubs across all
nine of our districts. And wewere going to be moving students
in buses, and the, you know,from Silverton to Archuleta. And
(23:35):
that's like a two and a halfhour drive over four mountain
passes, right. And then we'relike, that's not going to work
that's doing east side and westside, that's not going to work.
And now we're in this finaliteration, where we narrow down
shared courses between twodistricts on two pathways. And
(23:57):
we're seeing a lot of tractionthat way. And so the why I'm
saying that is because you canstill, as you're building out
this dream of shared courseware,this dream of consolidating
resources in order to do more orbring more to a region, you can
also be doing some more lowhanging fruit that is priming
(24:20):
students ready and then pushesyour partners to get to the
place of shared courses. Andthat's what we did with that
workplace learning.
Chad Bolser (24:30):
Yeah, so I love what you're talking about here.
And I appreciate and for thosewho folks who didn't catch that
statement before, as they'relistening, this takes some time,
right? Like there's lots of timethat is spent in developing all
these ideas, and some of theideas will work and some of them
will be a struggle. With that inmind. We will have folks who
(24:54):
will listen to this to say welove the idea of a rural
collaborative, maybe even willinaudible You know, on some
other topics somewhere else, ifyou were talking to leaders in
community or schools, and yousaid, give us some practical
advice about how you begin thisprocess, you know, what would be
the things that you wouldoutline as a starting place?
Jessica Morrison (25:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, man. So I think it's almostlike a SWOT analysis. But in the
sense of facilitating a processwith really the first agreement
of being, hey, look, let's behonest with each other about
what's on the table right now.
And what could potentially be onthe table in the future, and
(25:39):
things that we're just notwilling to engage in at the
moment, because that saveseveryone a lot of time. And when
you have, and, you know, schooldistricts and higher ed
partners, they do at the end ofthe day, they want to serve
students they want to givepeople do not get into
education, for the money thatyou make, right? It's about
(26:00):
serving the future generation.
And we also know all of thechallenges of physical budget
cuts and things to that nature.
And so I think the first pieceis getting really honest with
like, what are we willing tocollectively agree on to do in
the moment, and for ourcollaborative, it was work based
learning, right? Like that wasthe this makes sense. And so you
(26:23):
focus in on that, and you startto build some energy, you see
how it impacts students, andthen you come back to the table?
And you say, Okay, what's next?
Because, again, that work basedlearning component really
started pushing into, oh, now weneed your courses, we have all
of these students that just wenton this health sciences, job
(26:44):
shadow, they want classes, andwe don't have any, that we don't
figure this out. Right. So someof that is just understanding
that data around those pieces,you also need to really focus on
building your infrastructure.
And I can't say that enough. Andwhat I mean by that is, where
are you putting resources to getother people excited about this
(27:08):
work, we have a professionallearning community of
counselors, because you couldhave the best courses in the
world all laid out. But if yourcounselors do not think that
it's going to serve theirstudents, and or don't know
about it, and know how toadvise, it doesn't matter. So we
generate a professional learningcommunity of counselors, we
(27:29):
generate Professional LearningCommunities of educators
specifically in the pathway,where they are sharing
professional development witheach other that's relevant. They
say, hey, this shared equipmentthat the Collaborative has
brought into our shop, actually,I have this really great lesson
plan on how to use this laserengraver that industry bring.
(27:51):
Let me show it to you. And thenthey start sharing with each
other, that also builds thatcollaborative spirit. So you
need to do that. It's a roughanalogy, but like the top and
the bottom, you need to beserving both sides, you need
your administration on board,you need your superintendents
and your CTE directors and yourprincipals to agree to share the
(28:13):
vision. But you also need tocultivate the people on the
ground who are actuallyimplementing, because if you
don't have both ready to go andunderstanding and communicating,
then it's not going to work. Sothose were some of our
successes, we have over 41Professional Learning
Communities that we've executedthis year, sending people to
(28:35):
conferences, having them sharecollaboratively together. And
then that also helps supportindividual structures, as well
as that collaborative piece. SoI would say that work based
learning, like figure out whatyour low hanging fruit is, and
elevate that, I would say focuson what you can do currently.
(28:55):
And then what do you want to doin the future. And one of the
things an example of that is,when I first started, we had
never talked about a region wideWork Based Learning database
system. Now, I'm in my thirdyear, we just launched career
launch southwest, it is a regionwide Work Based Learning
database system, where anystudent in our region or
(29:16):
educator can go online and seeopportunities from all of our
industry from around the regionto engage in, and it's all free.
And that came out of the visionof this collaboration of Hey,
there are some rural schooldistricts in our community that
their students don't have accessto industry and internships
(29:38):
because there's not someone fromour school district that we can
pay to go out and cultivate thatrelationship. Well, that doesn't
seem fair. How do we fix that?
How do we align all of ourdocuments so that it's easier on
industry to access our students?
Those are the conversations thatwe're having right now, where
every single online districtsare aligning the amount of hours
(29:59):
they're reading hiring forinternships to make it easier on
industry that wasn't discussedthree years ago. But now we have
this $80,000 design system inour region for free to do that
collaboration. So I think it'sstarting small.
Sarah Williamson (30:14):
That's amazing, Jessica. And you
mentioned, it's almost like youknew my next question. You
mentioned how you're telling thestory and how you're educating
people around you. Because, ofcourse, you can't get anywhere
unless people aren't supportingthis program and understand what
you're doing. So this podcastwas actually created to elevate
thought leadership andeducation, elevate those
leaders, elevate how people aretelling stories. Is there any
(30:37):
other way that you're sharingthis story that you want to talk
about?
Jessica Morrison (30:40):
Yeah, sure. So I think whenever possible, we
are doing this more and more asour organization grows, it is
really bringing the individualsthat are engaged in our work in
the day to day to speak abouthow it has impacted their day to
day. So we've had buildingtrades teachers, environmental
(31:00):
science teachers, health scienceteachers, go to conferences, sit
on panels, talk to other schooldistricts that are about to come
in, talk to their board at theirschools to say this is how this
work is impacting me as aneducator. This is how it's
improving my practice. And thenthis is how it's actually making
(31:21):
a lot of change in ourclassroom. So when we obviously
you have to educate around thevision first and make sure
everyone has a solidunderstanding of that vision.
But once they have those successstories, it's really us
providing the platform in orderfor those educators to be able
to talk about the work. Ourboard chair, Dr. Cheser that we
(31:43):
mentioned as well as Chris deKaySuperintendent of Ignacio, our
superintendent Rhys Blanco, outof the Lower School District,
they have all sat on multiplepanels and conferences across
the nation for us to talk aboutthis work and how it why they
are bought in as a leader of aschool district. And then we've
(32:04):
recently implemented this year astudent advisory we inaudible 14
students from across our ninedistricts to sit and advise on
work that needs to be completed.
And now where that advisory it'sis in its infancy. And we are
talking about how do we providestudent advisory leadership
opportunities to learn how togrow and to speak about work,
(32:27):
the vision is by next year thatthey would be out as ambassadors
talking about the impact and whythe collaborative is important.
So really, providing theleadership and the resources and
the opportunities to yourpartners is the best way for
that work to be able to spread.
Sarah Williamson (32:48):
That's awesome. Well, this has been so
helpful and informative. Thankyou so much for your thorough
responses and thoughts on this.
Jessica, we appreciate it. Wherecan our listeners learn more
about you and connect with you?
Jessica Morrison (33:00):
Sure, yeah. So our website is
www.swcoedcollaborative.org Soyou can go there, and you can
look at. There's now a team ofnine of us. And so you can look
in our bios and see who you wantto reach out to, if you will, to
(33:21):
talk about very specific work.
We have a phenomenal team. Ifyou're interested in our
specific work based learningdatabase platform. It is called
Career launch southwest. And youcan access that at
www.careerlaunchsw.org And thenthere is an
info@swcoedcollaborative.orgemail that goes to an intern
(33:42):
that will answer any questionsabout that platform.
Sarah Williamson (33:48):
Well, this has been so great. Thank you.
Jessica Morrison (33:50):
Thank you so much for having me on.
Chad Bolser (33:52):
Thank you, Jessica.
The work is important, and it'sgreat to hear all about it.
Jessica Morrison (33:57):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
Chad Bolser (34:01):
Thanks for joining us for the Build Momentum
podcast today. If you enjoyedlistening, we would love to hear
your feedback, and would begrateful if you would leave us a
review.
Sarah Williamson (34:11):
This helps us to share these powerful stories
with even more people. If youliked what you heard, we would
be honored if you could sharethis episode with someone in
your network. We look forward toseeing you next time on Build
Momentum.
Hello and welcome to Build Momentum, a
Podcast where we explore thoughtleadership and education. I'm
Sarah Williamson, the Founder ofSW PR group.
Chad Bolser (00:14):
And I'm Chad Bolser Chancellor Ivy Tech Community
College in Richmond, Indiana.
This season, we will launch aseries exploring global
workforce development and K 12school districts and the leaders
who are bringing this work tolight.
Sarah Williamson (00:29):
We hear from CTE directors, superintendents
and thought leaders on the topicof workforce development, how it
shifted throughout the lastseveral years, who is employing
strategies that are making animpact and how they're sharing
those stories with the broadereducation community. We explore
how to leverage key partners,your constituents and the media
to authentically impact yourorganization and the leaders who
(00:51):
champion them. We can't wait toget started. So let's dive in.
Today's episode, we continue ourglobal workforce series with
Jessica Morrison, the executivedirector of Southwest Colorado
Education Collaborative. We'reexcited to spend some time with
you today, Jessica, to exploresome of the great work you're
doing in the traditional careerand technical education space.
(01:12):
Welcome to the podcast.
Jessica Morrison (01:13):
Yeah, thank you, Sarah, and Chad for having
me on. I'm so excited to talkabout all the good work that's
happening in this SouthwestColorado.
Chad Bolser (01:21):
Yeah. So with that in mind, tell us about the
Southwest Colorado EducationalCollaborative, what schools are
involved, what kind ofopportunities you provide your
students just give us anoverview of the operation.
Jessica Morrison (01:34):
Yeah, sure.
And I can even start in on alittle bit of the history. So
the collaborative started, wecall ourself the collaborative
for short. The collaborativestarted about three and a half
years ago under a rice grantthat was awarded to leaders in
our region to try on this idea$3.6 million largest rice grant
in the state of Colorado out ofGovernor Polis office. And
(01:58):
pretty much what these leaderssitting at the table focused on
was, hey, our students in ourrural communities deserve to
have the same access to careerand college resources as our
students in our metro areas inthe state of Colorado and across
the nation. And so when theystarted looking at what those
(02:19):
resources were that studentsdeserve to have access to, and
how they would be able toprovide those resources
independently within their ruralcommunities, they really
realized that they weren't goingto be able to do it alone. And
so they came up with this visionabout sharing resources, so
breaking themselves out of theirsilos, and sharing across
(02:42):
districts and higher ed partnersand industry to build the same
access for students, which is,you know, innovative in itself.
Right. So we started off withfive school districts Bayfield,
Silverton Archer ledit, Durangoin Ignacio. And our two higher
ed partners for it was collegeand public community college.
(03:06):
And we started in on twopathways, building trades, and
environmental based off ofeconomic data for our region and
student-student voice studentchoice. And then what was
already happening within ourdistricts and our higher ed
partners as far as programming.
(03:27):
So what resources did we alreadyhave available. And so taking
that idea and accelerating itvery quickly to where we are
now, the collaborative is nowpartnered with nine school
districts across the entireregion. We still have our higher
ed partner, Fort Lewis Collegeand public community college.
We've expanded into five careerand college pathways. So we
(03:51):
still have our original twobuilding trades and
environmental. We have alsoencompass Health Sciences,
Education, and hospitality,tourism. And then we facilitate
across all three of the sectors.
So the third sector is industry.
And so now we hold a place inthe center of facilitating
(04:11):
conversations between industry K12 and higher ed. So that is our
large overall model.
Sarah Williamson (04:17):
That is fantastic. Shout out to Karen
Cheser from Durango. Love thatwoman. She Yes, I've met her a
few different times. Do you knowher? Jen? She's amazing.
Jessica Morrison (04:27):
Yeah. Yeah.
She is amazing. It looks likeit's on mute there.
Chad Bolser (04:32):
Yeah. We were on a panel together.
Jessica Morrison (04:34):
Oh, fantastic.
Sarah Williamson (04:35):
She's out.
Jessica Morrison (04:36):
So Dr. Cheser is actually our board chair.
Sarah Williamson (04:39):
Shout out to Dr. Karen Cheser. There we go.
Yeah. Okay. All right. So wehave become familiar with the
work of the Southwest ColoradoEducation Collaborative through
some of our friends at Empowerschools. Fair how those schools
came together, how you createdall these partnerships?
Jessica Morrison (04:56):
Yeah, sure.
Absolutely. So and I can alsotalk about a little bit about
the work that we do as well. Sowhat does that mean for a career
and college pathway and thepartnerships had. so Empower
schools, we work with manytechnical support partners, one
of them from the beginning hasbeen Empower schools, and they
are integral to this work. Theyone they were running our hiring
(05:19):
process for the executivedirector. That's how I first
engaged with them. But thenevery step of the way, when I
stepped into an organizationthat didn't even have a 501 C3
registration yet to how do youstructure a board that is a
cooperative? How do we placeourselves as paid collaborative
(05:40):
members as facilitators of avision, because that's the
strength of the collaborative,is that the partners of the
collaborative or thecollaborative, I am not the
collaborative, I am paid by ourpartners to facilitate their
vision and help support themalong the way with curating what
that vision looks like, right?
(06:04):
And Empower schools has beenintegral in that process with us
they have helped support mespecifically within my role with
how do you corral nine schooldistricts with nine different
priorities and potentially likeneeds that are all different
across our region to come intoor to come to a shared vision of
(06:25):
how they are going to moveforward? How do we execute MO
use where there are sharedequipment that students and
teachers are using acrossdistricts? What does that look
like? Well, we're movingequipment across mountain
passes. And so Empower schoolshas been a huge asset to our
region, and to our organizationto help keep us on that larger
(06:49):
vision as we are working out thedetails. So we're really, really
fortunate to have them at thetable, and their commitment. I
think the other thing thatEmpower schools does really well
is is that they give usresources, they provide us
feedback, but they have alwaysfocused on the fact that it
(07:10):
looks different in every ruralcommunity. And so they focus in
on providing behind the scenesresources to collaboratives. But
then understand that weunderstand our communities best.
And so then therefore, we'regoing to work in partnership
with them to explain what weactually need, because it looks
(07:31):
different. It looks differentacross different communities, as
well as if you're in a metroarea versus a rural area. So
I've always been impressed withEmpower schools, and their
ability to also understand thatthe power really comes in having
our rural leaders lead the way.
Chad Bolser (07:50):
So Jessica, I'm a part of the community college
system here in the state ofIndiana. And so I'm always
interested, you mentioned yourhigher education partners before
and some of the really coolprogramming that you're doing.
What successes have you seen?
And what challenges do you haveworking in that space with the
higher education institutions?
Jessica Morrison (08:14):
Yeah, absolutely. This is so
brilliant, because I was workingon shared courses this morning
was at Fort Lewis College. So Ithink that there is always
there's always going to bechallenges to and roadblocks to
anything that has not beenmapped out. Right, and has been
(08:34):
done and has proven success. Andthat is very much true in the
higher education. I used to workin higher education. I have a
background in that. And so Ithink what we have really gotten
right is that we have higher edpartners at the table that
understand that some of thiswork, needs to have an
(08:57):
individual that's willing andcommitted to jump, identify
challenges, and work on asolution focused way to create a
roadmap that doesn't exist. Andthat's actually the whole piece
of the Southwest ColoradoEducation Collaborative. We are
the first ones in Colorado,there is eight additional world
collaboratives since us, but weare the ones that are the
(09:20):
furthest along and providingthis building and implementation
of a roadmap. And there's been alot of what people would call
failures along the way. And sothat can be really tricky for
partners, especially highereducation. But we have been
really fortunate that both FortLewis College and public
community college understandthat we need to be working
(09:42):
collectively together to figureout what those solutions are to
those barriers. Some of thebarriers that I would say that
we currently face is forexample, we've run an education
pathway and it's really excitingthe teacher Ed pathway student
that moves through our teacher,Ed pathway could potentially
leave with 12 collegiate creditsthat they could use towards
(10:07):
becoming an educator. Right?
Which is exciting, because thatis, you know, a full semester
off of their tuition for fouryears. And so but what that
looks like the devil in thedetails with that is how do you
share a course where you can puta professor in nine different
school districts. And so we haveto identify professors that are
willing to teach in a hybridformat, hybrid synchronous, but
(10:30):
that takes a different skillset. Right. So identifying a
teacher or a professor who iswilling to teach in a hybrid
format, identifying or workingwith admissions to understand
that it's not just filling theclass, because we know that
seats equate the dollars, buthow do we backfill in timelines
(10:52):
to ensure that there isrepresentation from multiple
school districts so that it'sshared and accessible to all and
not just maybe the schooldistrict that has the most
resources. So that hasdefinitely been a challenge in
itself, and then determining howmany students need to be in that
(11:13):
class in order for that seat,that class to run, because we
are building out shared CourseGuides, and providing all of
this counseling and informationout around the community. And
then if only five students signup for that course, that's a
loss of revenue for thatcollegiate institution. And
(11:34):
usually, that collegiateinstitution then want to just
run the course. But then thatcan stop the pathway. So those
are definitely some significantchallenges and barriers that we
have to work through with ourtwo year and our four year. But
being committed to that, whichhas been fantastic. Right?
Sarah Williamson (11:51):
Yeah, that's great. And then kind of on that
note of challenges, we know thatfunding, of course, can be an
issue when you're sharingstudents. We're curious to know
how, especially in the K 12education space, what's your
funding model? And how do youmake it work for each of those
school districts?
Jessica Morrison (12:07):
Yeah, so that's a great debt. Yes.
Whenever you talk about money,right, like at the dinner table,
it's an issue and you're talkingabout and you're not family?
Sarah Williamson (12:17):
Oh, yeah.
Right.
Jessica Morrison (12:20):
So our funding model, there's a couple of
different components to it. Sooverall, the collective
collaborative, the partners thatare sitting at our table and
have a signed MOU, provide adistrict contribution. And that
is that district contribution isdetermined by an annual budget
that I create, and I say, Okay,this is how much grant funding,
(12:44):
we have to cover our robustprogramming that I'll talk
about. So and then this is howmuch I think I'm going to be
able to get but then these arethe things that I am not going
to be able to build to a grant,for example, like insurance for
our board members, if I'mfundraising, my fundraising time
towards my salary, you can'tbuild that to a grand and a
private funders most likely notgoing to give that to you. So we
(13:07):
make up what is that generaloperations budget that we are
not going to be able to fillgrant wise. And then we
calculate that out acrossstudent numbers and school
districts, and then our schooldistricts pay a contribution. So
our smaller school districts,one of our school districts only
(13:27):
has 84 students in the wholedistrict. So Silverton is
obviously paying less than, youknow, Durango high school that
has 3000 students, right? Soit's not during goes not that
many, but it's just it's ahigher number, whatever that is.
So we have our K 12 institutionsthat pay and for general
(13:48):
operations, in addition to that,our higher ed partners provide
in kind. And so what that lookslike is Fort Lewis College
provides office space in kind tous. So that drops the general
operations budget down to lowerthe costs for K 12 institutions.
And so that has been and thenfrom the executive director head
(14:10):
on, I am able to when I'mwriting grants or talking to
private funders say every singlepartner that's at the table has
not only a shared investment andcommitment through an MOU, but
they are putting dollars behindthis shared commitment. And that
has allowed us to bring in nowat this point in three years, $7
(14:31):
million into our region,basically, like through
specifically the collaborative,right. And so it's all of these
different pieces that work. Andthen I'm really proud of our K
12 partners, because thesuperintendents all last March
got together in a room and theysaid, Okay, if we're doing
shared courses, we need to comeup with a cost model. So they
(14:53):
came up with a cost model witheach other that if there's a
student from Ignacio, that takescorse in Bayfield, then Ignacio
pays a flat rate for thatstudent and then depending on
the class a certain amount forthe amount of consumables that
are needed in that class, like,if it's a culinary class,
there's a high amount ofconsumables, right? So that is
(15:16):
the model and empower schoolswas intrical in helping us
trying to figure out that modelas well.
Chad Bolser (15:22):
That's really, really cool that you're able to
generate that much support. AndI love the in kind sort of way
that that's higher ed isn'tinvested there. So to kind of
continue down that path, whatwhat credentials are you
offering high school studentscurrently? And what outcomes of
(15:45):
the program have happened in thelast couple of years that would
be notable to folks listening intrying to figure out how to get
this going? What are theoutcomes, then?
Jessica Morrison (15:53):
Yeah, well Chad, I can send you over that
annual report that we have justoff the press two, which is
great. So there's a lot ofdifferent components. And I
think the first thing that Iwant to say to all of your
listeners is to understand thatthese pieces take time. And so
this is not for a schooldistrict that is faint of heart.
(16:14):
I've worked in K 12 institutionsas well, also on the federal
government side. And so I knowhow important data is, and like,
what are the numbers, how manystudents are earning industry
credentials, but laying thegroundwork takes years. And so
it's looking at all of thedifferent components to then
(16:36):
determine what are the stepsthat need to be put in place
along the way. So as I say thatwe are two and a half years in
we are in our third year ofserving students. And so I'll
give some highlights and thenI'll talk about what that looks
like. So one of the biggestpieces that we did very quickly
is we started to engage in workbased learning. So we built half
(16:58):
day job shadows that engage havethree to four hands on, or
brains on activities thatstudents get to engage with
industry and to learn abouttheir job. And so we built the
model of the half, half day jobshadow, we then went out and
recruited industry leaders to beable to showcase their work. And
(17:21):
then we go over to the K 12institutions, and we recruit
students to participate in thosejob shadows. So those were easy
wins, right? For a couple ofreasons. One are industry
leaders love to actually talkabout their work and showcase it
in a way where it's not a standin deliver at a traditional
college fair that we've allattended when we were in high
(17:44):
school, and then you havestudents standing across from
you on their cell phones, notlistening to anything that
you're talking about. Instead,we have students that are
learning very specifically howto actualize insurance policies,
right or things to that nature.
So based off from those jobshadows, and garnering that
interest, we also collect surveydata from students after, and
(18:07):
that's really important. So weasked students at the end of it,
were you interested in this typeof career? You are great. Are
you currently taking a class? Inthis type of career? You're
currently taking a buildingtrades class, you're not? Would
you like to in the future? Wouldyou be interested in an
internship in the future, wetake all of that data, and we
(18:27):
bring it to the counselors atthe school districts. So then
instead of blindly puttingstudents into courses, they are
now doing a whole studentadvising on this is what a
student's interest is. They'vedone an experience with
industry. And now they're goingto be able to start entering
(18:47):
into a career and collegepathway. So that was like the
first thing that we got. Right.
And that was done really well.
The second thing that's alsofocused in work based learning
as a quick add in, or initiativewas that we built summer
Institutes. So our longestserving Summer Institute is ECI.
It's the Environmental ClimateInstitute. It's a week long
(19:10):
program residential program atFort Lewis College. It's
actually all in kind from FortLewis College. And we bring
industry leaders fromenvironmental like, Forest
Service is one, Mountain StudiesInstitute is another one, Tree
Coring things to that nature.
(19:31):
And students spend five dayswith industry learning, again,
in an immersive format aboutthose different types of
careers. We then take that dataat the end and let them know
hey, there's this entry level,environmental science course
Concurrent Enrollment that'sfree to you here at Fort Lewis
College if you're interested. Soagain, those work based learning
(19:52):
components are actually thethings that get the entry point
into the courses for for thecredentials, and industry
certifications. Some things thatwe didn't realize that came out
of the summer Institutes wasreally exciting is that we have
a mantra that we are going toserve the student in our
(20:13):
individual communities. That'sfurthest from opportunities,
because when we've tapped intothem, then we know that we're
supporting everyone else. Andone of the things that came up
with the Summer Institutes isthat middle class and upper
class students are actually theones that can afford to go to
summer programs. And so thatdidn't work for us. So we made
(20:37):
the summer Institutes free, andthen we stipend students to
attend those summer Institutesbecause a lot of our low income
students, they have to havesummer jobs to support
themselves and their families.
So we just removed that barrier.
And so from ECI, we found out inour building trades summer or
(20:58):
building trades, creatingcollege pathway, that economic
data for Southwest Colorado, thetop three jobs that have the
most vacancies are HVAC,electrical, and plumbing, with a
2% growth in that industry everyyear for the next 10 years. Not
a single one of our K 12partners have classes in any of
(21:19):
those three industry areas. Andnone of our higher ed partners
here are right across our stateline run programs. So it was a
desert. So we're like, well, wehave to do something. So we
built a behind the drywallsummer institute that focuses
specifically on a trackelectrical and plumbing. We
(21:41):
piloted it for the first yearbrought industry and industry
was so excited about it thatthey were like, we're just gonna
start hiring students directlyout of this program. So the
students would go for five daysthrough the building trades
behind the drywall summerprogram, they will be hired in
by industry, we have studentsthat are on a pre apprenticeship
(22:02):
path right now. Because theywent to the Summer Institute,
the industry leader met withthem, gave them a summer job at
the end of it said, hey, youknow, what do you want to do an
apprenticeship, I will pay youto be to go through this
program, I'll pay all of yourfees, and then I'm going to pay
you to work. So now we have likea senior who's doing a half day
(22:24):
at DHS, and he's making $38,000as a plumber and getting his
certification along the way. Butthen we'll also happen with that
is that now we have a schooldistrict that's interested in
piloting an HVAC course in theirhigh school. And then our two
year partner was like, well,actually, maybe we should run an
(22:45):
electrical journeymancertificate. And so this is
where when I'm talking aboutthese work based learning
components, it's like that's thestart. That's like the low
hanging fruit, but then itpushes into what you're talking
about with credentials incertifications. So all to say,
Chad, that was like a very longexample. And so specifically, to
(23:10):
answer your question, I'm like,what is the data, the data is,
is that the hardest part isshared courses. That is the
hardest part. And when westarted in our first year, I had
this grand vision that we weregoing to have hubs across all
nine of our districts. And wewere going to be moving students
in buses, and the, you know,from Silverton to Archuleta. And
(23:35):
that's like a two and a halfhour drive over four mountain
passes, right. And then we'relike, that's not going to work
that's doing east side and westside, that's not going to work.
And now we're in this finaliteration, where we narrow down
shared courses between twodistricts on two pathways. And
(23:57):
we're seeing a lot of tractionthat way. And so the why I'm
saying that is because you canstill, as you're building out
this dream of shared courseware,this dream of consolidating
resources in order to do more orbring more to a region, you can
also be doing some more lowhanging fruit that is priming
(24:20):
students ready and then pushesyour partners to get to the
place of shared courses. Andthat's what we did with that
workplace learning.
Chad Bolser (24:30):
Yeah, so I love what you're talking about here.
And I appreciate and for thosewho folks who didn't catch that
statement before, as they'relistening, this takes some time,
right? Like there's lots of timethat is spent in developing all
these ideas, and some of theideas will work and some of them
will be a struggle. With that inmind. We will have folks who
(24:54):
will listen to this to say welove the idea of a rural
collaborative, maybe even willinaudible You know, on some
other topics somewhere else, ifyou were talking to leaders in
community or schools, and yousaid, give us some practical
advice about how you begin thisprocess, you know, what would be
the things that you wouldoutline as a starting place?
Jessica Morrison (25:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, man. So I think it's almostlike a SWOT analysis. But in the
sense of facilitating a processwith really the first agreement
of being, hey, look, let's behonest with each other about
what's on the table right now.
And what could potentially be onthe table in the future, and
(25:39):
things that we're just notwilling to engage in at the
moment, because that saveseveryone a lot of time. And when
you have, and, you know, schooldistricts and higher ed
partners, they do at the end ofthe day, they want to serve
students they want to givepeople do not get into
education, for the money thatyou make, right? It's about
(26:00):
serving the future generation.
And we also know all of thechallenges of physical budget
cuts and things to that nature.
And so I think the first pieceis getting really honest with
like, what are we willing tocollectively agree on to do in
the moment, and for ourcollaborative, it was work based
learning, right? Like that wasthe this makes sense. And so you
(26:23):
focus in on that, and you startto build some energy, you see
how it impacts students, andthen you come back to the table?
And you say, Okay, what's next?
Because, again, that work basedlearning component really
started pushing into, oh, now weneed your courses, we have all
of these students that just wenton this health sciences, job
(26:44):
shadow, they want classes, andwe don't have any, that we don't
figure this out. Right. So someof that is just understanding
that data around those pieces,you also need to really focus on
building your infrastructure.
And I can't say that enough. Andwhat I mean by that is, where
are you putting resources to getother people excited about this
(27:08):
work, we have a professionallearning community of
counselors, because you couldhave the best courses in the
world all laid out. But if yourcounselors do not think that
it's going to serve theirstudents, and or don't know
about it, and know how toadvise, it doesn't matter. So we
generate a professional learningcommunity of counselors, we
(27:29):
generate Professional LearningCommunities of educators
specifically in the pathway,where they are sharing
professional development witheach other that's relevant. They
say, hey, this shared equipmentthat the Collaborative has
brought into our shop, actually,I have this really great lesson
plan on how to use this laserengraver that industry bring.
(27:51):
Let me show it to you. And thenthey start sharing with each
other, that also builds thatcollaborative spirit. So you
need to do that. It's a roughanalogy, but like the top and
the bottom, you need to beserving both sides, you need
your administration on board,you need your superintendents
and your CTE directors and yourprincipals to agree to share the
(28:13):
vision. But you also need tocultivate the people on the
ground who are actuallyimplementing, because if you
don't have both ready to go andunderstanding and communicating,
then it's not going to work. Sothose were some of our
successes, we have over 41Professional Learning
Communities that we've executedthis year, sending people to
(28:35):
conferences, having them sharecollaboratively together. And
then that also helps supportindividual structures, as well
as that collaborative piece. SoI would say that work based
learning, like figure out whatyour low hanging fruit is, and
elevate that, I would say focuson what you can do currently.
(28:55):
And then what do you want to doin the future. And one of the
things an example of that is,when I first started, we had
never talked about a region wideWork Based Learning database
system. Now, I'm in my thirdyear, we just launched career
launch southwest, it is a regionwide Work Based Learning
database system, where anystudent in our region or
(29:16):
educator can go online and seeopportunities from all of our
industry from around the regionto engage in, and it's all free.
And that came out of the visionof this collaboration of Hey,
there are some rural schooldistricts in our community that
their students don't have accessto industry and internships
(29:38):
because there's not someone fromour school district that we can
pay to go out and cultivate thatrelationship. Well, that doesn't
seem fair. How do we fix that?
How do we align all of ourdocuments so that it's easier on
industry to access our students?
Those are the conversations thatwe're having right now, where
every single online districtsare aligning the amount of hours
(29:59):
they're reading hiring forinternships to make it easier on
industry that wasn't discussedthree years ago. But now we have
this $80,000 design system inour region for free to do that
collaboration. So I think it'sstarting small.
Sarah Williamson (30:14):
That's amazing, Jessica. And you
mentioned, it's almost like youknew my next question. You
mentioned how you're telling thestory and how you're educating
people around you. Because, ofcourse, you can't get anywhere
unless people aren't supportingthis program and understand what
you're doing. So this podcastwas actually created to elevate
thought leadership andeducation, elevate those
leaders, elevate how people aretelling stories. Is there any
(30:37):
other way that you're sharingthis story that you want to talk
about?
Jessica Morrison (30:40):
Yeah, sure. So I think whenever possible, we
are doing this more and more asour organization grows, it is
really bringing the individualsthat are engaged in our work in
the day to day to speak abouthow it has impacted their day to
day. So we've had buildingtrades teachers, environmental
(31:00):
science teachers, health scienceteachers, go to conferences, sit
on panels, talk to other schooldistricts that are about to come
in, talk to their board at theirschools to say this is how this
work is impacting me as aneducator. This is how it's
improving my practice. And thenthis is how it's actually making
(31:21):
a lot of change in ourclassroom. So when we obviously
you have to educate around thevision first and make sure
everyone has a solidunderstanding of that vision.
But once they have those successstories, it's really us
providing the platform in orderfor those educators to be able
to talk about the work. Ourboard chair, Dr. Cheser that we
(31:43):
mentioned as well as Chris deKaySuperintendent of Ignacio, our
superintendent Rhys Blanco, outof the Lower School District,
they have all sat on multiplepanels and conferences across
the nation for us to talk aboutthis work and how it why they
are bought in as a leader of aschool district. And then we've
(32:04):
recently implemented this year astudent advisory we inaudible 14
students from across our ninedistricts to sit and advise on
work that needs to be completed.
And now where that advisory it'sis in its infancy. And we are
talking about how do we providestudent advisory leadership
opportunities to learn how togrow and to speak about work,
(32:27):
the vision is by next year thatthey would be out as ambassadors
talking about the impact and whythe collaborative is important.
So really, providing theleadership and the resources and
the opportunities to yourpartners is the best way for
that work to be able to spread.
Sarah Williamson (32:48):
That's awesome. Well, this has been so
helpful and informative. Thankyou so much for your thorough
responses and thoughts on this.
Jessica, we appreciate it. Wherecan our listeners learn more
about you and connect with you?
Jessica Morrison (33:00):
Sure, yeah. So our website is
www.swcoedcollaborative.org Soyou can go there, and you can
look at. There's now a team ofnine of us. And so you can look
in our bios and see who you wantto reach out to, if you will, to
(33:21):
talk about very specific work.
We have a phenomenal team. Ifyou're interested in our
specific work based learningdatabase platform. It is called
Career launch southwest. And youcan access that at
www.careerlaunchsw.org And thenthere is an
info@swcoedcollaborative.orgemail that goes to an intern
(33:42):
that will answer any questionsabout that platform.
Sarah Williamson (33:48):
Well, this has been so great. Thank you.
Jessica Morrison (33:50):
Thank you so much for having me on.
Chad Bolser (33:52):
Thank you, Jessica.
The work is important, and it'sgreat to hear all about it.
Jessica Morrison (33:57):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
Chad Bolser (34:01):
Thanks for joining us for the Build Momentum
podcast today. If you enjoyedlistening, we would love to hear
your feedback, and would begrateful if you would leave us a
review.
Sarah Williamson (34:11):
This helps us to share these powerful stories
with even more people. If youliked what you heard, we would
be honored if you could sharethis episode with someone in
your network. We look forward toseeing you next time on Build
Momentum.
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